MUJI The brand with no brand
MUJI (final draft) Isamu Noguchi's Akari lanterns hold a unique place, expressing his Japanese's American heritage in works designed to enhance the quality everyday life. Akari means "light as illumination": Noguchi created these lanterns in an attempt to retune electric light to the dominion of nature, covering electric bulbs with natural hand made paper lanterns that brought artificial light into the realm of natural light –the one produced by a Japanese paper wall illuminated by the sun. Muji is simple. It understands human nature and, as Noguchy did, brought technology into the experience of nature. Its products are natural, simple and environmental. They are honest and unpretentious. They are beautiful in their simplicity. Eliminating wistfulness, items are born as substantives instead of adjectives. Their intention is to fulfill the basic need, as basic as it might be. The fact that Muji was born in Japan is not a coincidence. From a westerner's perspective, japanese aesthetics are seen as philosophy, but the concept of aesthetics in Japan is seen as an integral part of daily life. Aesthetic is understood in the context of things "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete." As things come and go, they show signs of decadence, which is considered beautiful. Beauty is found in the mundane and simple. Beauty stems from life. Muji will say "A chair is a chair, and everything else is nonsense"; thus Muji is the brand with no name, and their products are simple and beautiful.
MUJI (extended version) Western culture is obsessed with progress in order to pursue a better future. From the candle to the oil lamp to the electric bulb to the neon light. But all serve the same purpose, although its evolution separates light from human experience to a matter of alchemy. We are not content which what we have, with what we are, never satisfied with our surrounding, and we spend our lives waiting for something better to spend our money on. Shall we want get more of this things, or content with less? History has bought us that technology had good and bad consequences. From the first machine, we came to the chip and the continuos loop of information and noise. We don't care any more about silence, pause, where pleasant thought is born. We had become a culture of noise, and our technology insists on it. Pursuing silence and order is in part turning away from technology because is turning away from noise. And our music is the embodiment of our culture. There is no sense that lights more our bran that music. It was recently discovered that music can heal the brain after a stroke. At the same time, we are immersed in the ugliness of noise. What can you expect of a society that created rap as well as death metal? being immersed in filth, we have come to see it as be beauty. Beauty must always grow form the realities of life. Makeup is therefore ashamed of natural beauty. Makeup is everywhere (had became vernacular), trying to made up objects and identities in something superfluous that they are not. Is nothing than the beauty of the raw flesh, the one in which our ancestors found tenderness. Technology and its principles creates and reproduces and achieves complication (perfection?), witch contradicts the natural. It makes reality unnatural, unpractical, and bland. The wider the screen, the more makeup is need. The more we are exposed, the more we hide. Would there be a time when we can return to the natural? Isamu Noguchi's Akari lanterns hold a unique place, expressing his Japanese's American heritage in works designed to enhance the quality everyday life. He called these works Akari, a term meaning light as illumination. He created them to retune electric light to the dominion of nature, covering electric bulbs with natural hand made paper lanterns that brought artificial light into the dominium of natural light –the one produced by a Japanese paper wall illuminated by the sun. He was the bridge between two cultures and traditions of the beauty: the japanese, mundane and simple, and the occidental, complicated and alchemistic. Identity, as concept, had evolved as a reflection of the evolution of illumination. In its origins, with sun light, identities where simple and their beauty was measured in the domains of nature. Brands as differentiators where no needed then. In our drive to evolve
and conquer the night with light, simplicity was seen as vulgar and lost its appeal for more complicated and evolved forms. Simple human identities now where made up to hide their simple imperfections and trick the eye. They where "enhanced" through more and more layers of artificial make up. Artificial beauty was attractive and our tastes where adapted to its plastic flavors. Tired of silence, we created a culture of noise where complex identities proliferated. Brands where therefore needed as our senses where overwhelmed with complex stimulus. Artificial lights and identities surrounds us. The brighter the light, the bigger the screen, the more makeup needed, the more we hide, the far we are from nature. There is not silence and what we experience is not what it is, is what it sounds like. Muji is simple. It understands human nature and, as Noguchy did, brought technology into the experience of nature. Its products are natural, simple and environmental. They are honest and unpretentious. They are beautiful in their simplicity. Eliminating wistfulness, items are born as substantives instead of adjective. They need no other name. They become universal again. It eliminated the noise bringing simple forms and simple colors (paradoxically they have a fresh look.) In this process, Muji brought again the product to the individual freedom of its use without the chains of superficial conventions. Beautiful objects are basic and useful. Once you buy one, as useful is its final goal, you don't need to buy another one or a better one. Their intention is to fulfill the basic need as basic as it could bee. The fact that Muji was born in Japan is not a coincidence. Japanese aesthetics, as religions, can only be understood in the context. From the western perspective, japanese aesthetics are seen as philosophy, thus the concept of aesthetics in Japan is seen as an integral part of daily life. Therefore, the aesthetic is understood in the context of things "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete." As things come and go, they show signs of decadence, considered to be beautiful. Beauty can be seen as the mundane and simple. This principles where applied to characters of character and behavior. Hence, ascetic ideals pervaded Japanese culture. Western modern culture is perhaps antithetic. Based on the principle of eternal life, objects where created to transcend their time for generations. Therefore, there is a need of perfection in the object as measure of their endurance over time. This principle is reflected in society, where those who are more perfect than the others will be granted with eternal life. Simplicity is understood in a complete different way too. "Less is more" therefore "more is more." In this, beauty is what we can't achieve.
The western need for more, for progress, for perfection, seems to me to create a profound separation between human and nature materialized in the need for complicated products to achieve beauty. Muji will say "A chair is a chair, and everything else is nonsense." And because of that, Muji is the brand with no name, and their products are simple and beautiful.
MUJI The brand with no brand
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